1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fire escapes, and in particular to fire escapes for buildings such as apartment buildings, the apartments of which have balconies spaced one above the other.
2. Prior Art
It has long been evident that in the event of fire in multiple storey buildings, exterior escape routes are preferrable in respect to safety than interior escape routes. Furthermore, exterior escape routes avoid the loss of valuable floor space taken up by interior routes.
Fire escapes on exterior walls of buildings usually take the form of a series of flights of stairs extending between landings disposed at every floor of the building, emergency exits being provided at every landing to permit escapees to avail themselves of the fire escape should the need arise. Present fire escapes of this type are usually bolted to the building and for obvious reasons are made as light as practically possible.
This type of fire escape is quite adequate to permit firemen to ascent to fight a fire, however, firemen find it difficult to evacuate a building as some escapees tend to freeze on the fire escape. It has been found, however, that those escapees who have a fear of heights can be pursuaded to descend a fire escape from great heights in a sitting position, that is to move from step to step in a sitting position. Furthermore, asthetically, fire escapes of this type leave much to be desired, consequently, they are not used in modern high-rise apartments where external appearance is considered to be of prime importance.
To this end, fire escapes offering little distraction to the aesthetic qualities of a building, have been devised to permit escape from balcony to balcony of apartments in apartment buildings. However, prior art escape devices of this type have proven costly to assemble and do not provide sifficient rigidity to assure a person who has a great fear of heights that the descent can be made in safety.